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Ford and Chrysler Offer Deep Year-End Discounts

December 7, 2006

• Truck and SUV Sales Plunge in August • GM Aims High-Mileage Cruze At U.S. Market • GM Offers Employee Prices to Spur Slow Sales • U.S. Consumers Favor Japanese and German Automakers • Automakers Report Huge Drop in Sales • GM Cuts Prices for February • Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM • New GM Sale May Challenge Bargain Hunters • GM Hangs on as World's No. 1 Automaker • Saturn Outlook Gets High Marks from Consumer Reports • Summer Car Sales Start to Sizzle • Consumer Reports Lists Best New Car Deals • Chrysler Dumps Remaining 2006 Inventory on Used Car Market --- • More about Auto Sales ...

Both Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG are offering year-end incentive deals worth thousand of dollars.

Ford has added $1,000 in year-end bonus cash on 12 more models, including the Mustang coupe and Explorer SUV to already existing sales promotions and Chrysler is putting $500 million in Chrysler dealers' hands to use with any 2006 vehicle the dealer chooses.

Ford customers can use the bonus cash on top of existing rebates and incentives which averaged $4,231 in November.

The sales slump at Ford is real. The automaker finished in fourth place in the U.S. auto market last month. GM remains in first place, followed by Toyota Motor Corp. and Chrysler.

Ford's problems were most pronounced in the important truck segment where demand for Ford trucks was down 51 percent from a year ago.

The company has a 93-day supply of unsold vehicles, compared to 90 days at General Motors Corp. and 76 days at Chrysler.

The Chrysler deals provide dealers up to $7,000 per vehicle in "dealer cash" for certain 2006 models. Chyrsler hopes the sales promotion offered alongside a new round of rebates on 2007 models will help ease tensions between Chrysler and its dealers as well as dispose of unsold inventory.

Chrysler cut its inventory from 647,000 vehicles in July to 499,000 in November, but 2006 models still account for 32 percent of the total, about 214,000 unsold vehicles.

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